Lasers are useful for a great many things, certainly up to and including being placed on the heads of irritable sea bass. For no reason whatsoever, this weekend will be the weekend of the laser here at Atomic Toasters, and we are going to start out by taking a look at a laser system that has proven to be quite useful indeed for those friendly fellows from down under. In the 1970s, the Royal Australian Navy noticed a lack of progress made in the surveying Australia’s territorial waters. There was much of the sea area that was was unsurveyed or simply old data from the age of sail, prompting the RAN to seek a method of effectively surveying large areas from the air. The Defence Science and Technology Organisation developed the LADS system, which stands for Laser Airborne Depth Sounder. The system began feasibility trials in is 1977, and although it was not operational until 1993, it is still flying today.

The Allies seem to have been pretty obsessed with diversion and camouflage during WW2. The house you see above is part of that obsession. It is part of the Green Street Bunker built in West End (Townsville), Queensland by the Royal Australian Air Force. Construction of the bunker, located on the outskirts of […]

There have now been quite a large number of solar panel arrays installed around the world. This particular one above is from New South Wales in Australia, and in the sun-baked desert, it does seem like a perfect place for it.